Sunday, November 13, 2011

1930s Sofa Slipcovering Odyssey

Warning: to those fashion sewers who abhor home dec sewing, may want to move along.

We needed a sofa for the living room of our new house, and I found this 1930's settee at an antique store in the Stonington Borough, CT (sorry for the bad iPhone photo):

The light blue striped (silk?) fabric was terribly sunstained and had to be replaced. For some reason I got the idea into my head that I could slipcover the sofa. Having never slipcovered a thing in my life. I mean, the library has books about DIY slipcovering, so it can be done, right?

After about 40 hours of hard labor, it can be. Below, the photographic evidence:

The robin's egg blue and red fabric is Robert Allen, purchased at a wonderful discount home decor fabric store, Just Fabrics in Cranston, RI. I draped the fabric on the sofa, and traced out where I thought the seams should go using tailor's chalk. I then cut out the pieces with a 2 inch seam allowance using my Olfa rotary cutter arm.

My sewing garment skillz applied to this project: I added side panels, stengthened with cording, to accomodate the curved back (like princess seaming!)

I also inserted a regular - but massively long - upholstery zipper on the cushion, which is down-filled. I added these little tabs to cover the zipper ends!:

This part was tricky to do because I had to seam the inner arm, side arm, and deck (bottom part underneath the cushion):

Picture of the back:

In order to get the fabric to curve along the back of the sofa instead of hang straight down, I cut and basted the pieces, and pulled them very taut while on the sofa, temporarily anchoring the pieces with pins, and then re-drew seam allowances based on their new taut positions. Okay, that part was tough, too. Because the slipcover is so fitted I added 2 invisible zippers on the back side seams to enable the cover to come on and off.

Despite leaving a 2 inch seam allowance, the bottom edges came up short in a few places so I had to finish the bottom with self-made bias binding. It was actually very easy to do: just a lot of straight line sewing.

Whew. Though I still need to sew curtains for almost all the rooms in the house, I need a break from home dec sewing for awhile. A long while. Back to garment sewing, yay!

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Do you tweet? I scornfully opened a Twitter account in order set up a Pinterest account, eventually began following things I like, and am now hooked. I randomly tweet about sewing, style, life.... Like how Connecticut was hit by a freak Nor'easter 2 weekends ago and we lost power for 10 days. That was unpleasant. There's a "follow me" button in the upper corner. If you Tweet, please let me know, becuase I'd love to follow my sewing friends.

Brilliant! Can you hear me applauding? (I'm in Milwaukee) My mom always made slip covers for furniture that fit and lasted forever. That was probably my early exposure to tailored design and piping. You deserve a professional photo shoot, or maybe smart people will pay you to use your beautiful sofa in their photo shoots. I don't think I've been to your blog before, so I'm off to play in your archives. Yay, Sunday and coffee.

Love it, love it, love it! You did an awesome job! It looks great. I admire the whole process: seeing the potential in the old sofa and snapping it up; choosing the gorgeous upholstery fabric, and the workmanship in recovering. Well done you.I've never tried tweeting, or read any tweeting. I'm still trying to figure out blogging! If I do, get sucked in (and so many people do swear by it), I'll look you up for sure.

I'm always impressed with a garment sewist who tackles a home dec project. I'm now in awe of you because that is one stunningly beautiful couch. You did an amazing job and should be very, very proud of yourself!

You have done an amazing job! I don't think home dec sewing on such a large scale is ever going to be for me (I think a throw pillow is about my limit!) but I am totally in awe of people who can cover a sofa. I LOVE the fabric - so perfect!

I've just borrowed a few books from the library so I can learn to reupholster one of our chairs! I've already bought the fabric. Of course I can do it! haha. And I've only ever made quilts. LOL I definitely do not have your garment sewing skills, but recently learned to sew my first dress! Your settee looks beautiful.

This transformation is amazing. I can't believe all of the details you added. And the fabric, I instantly thought Pottery Barn when I saw it... just beautiful. You should be really proud of yourself for this!

Happened upon your blog.I think you did a beautiful job. LOVE the fabric!I did something similar when we first married, almost 20 years ago, with my husband's old college couch. (Which was used when he got it!)Instead of invisible zippers (which I didn't think of) I used hidden strips of velcro to get the back fitted. (I had 6 cushions to do.)What amazes me, when I think back, I did it with my $99 very basic high school-graduation-present sewing machine. It's a wonder that puppy still worked when I was done!

I was smugly thinking how awesome it was that I reupholstered an ottoman this weekend--until I saw that awesome sofa you reupholstered. It looks fabulous. That was quite the project to start a new skill with. I completely understand how garment construction skills can make the bigger home dec projects go much more smoothly. Visit my blog and see my ottoman if you want. http://sewingsaga.blogspot.com/2011/11/pillowtop-and-piping.html Now to see which one of us gets the curtains sewn for the rest of the house. Have I mentioned how much I hate home dec.

Wow, you have mad skills! I love the style of this sette and I'm amazed at how you pulled this off! The fabric is beautiful and the details you've added with the slip are fantastic! I always think about attempting a slipcover and you make me want to do it!